I had always regarded Thompson as innocuous but I didn’t realise that he was so cravenly disposed to inaction

I had always regarded Thompson as innocuous but I didn’t realise that he was so cravenly disposed to inaction.It is ironic that the FA’s first chairman to draw a salary has proved so utterly unsuited to strong and fearless leadership. It is reported that he sided with the Premier clubs over this issue because he needs their votes to secure another term in office and proceed with his ambition to ascend to a high position with Uefa – not an ascension that requires much in the way of zest or ability.The way he dealt with Crozier’s resignation was typical of his approach. He left a statement on the FA’s website and departed immediately for a meeting in Switzerland. His praise of Crozier’s work described a man any normal person would fight tooth and nail to keep.His is the most reprehensible part in the sorry affair. At least Crozier’s enemies have long identified themselves as such. We know where Chelsea’s Ken Bates is coming from (what mystifies us is where he’s going). Premier League chairman David Richards, himself without a glittering past in football finance, and Peter Ridsdale, chairman of cash-strapped Leeds, are two of the other protagonists.With Crozier out of the way the Professional Game Board will take over the FA’s control of the clubs and of England.

Where will it all end, we wonder.Apart from the cash they siphon off, they may take over the discipline structure from more objective hands, and make it easier to annex the best young prospects from schoolboy level.And, if they get away with this coup, where else will their greed take them; Europe? Don’t scoff. There is a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday of G14, the top clubs of Europe, who have long muttered about a European Super League that wouldn’t leave much room for domestic entanglements such as the FA Cup. No more giant-killers; think how happy they’d be.Even with Crozier at the helm, the FA were a long way from perfect. He had concentrated on marketing and promotion when there were other urgent matters that appear to have been neglected. One of them was the Wimbledon situation.Franchising is a subject the game must look at sooner or later, but the actions of Wimbledon FC’s new owners in moving the club to share premises in Milton Keynes with an Asda supermarket have to be studied more thoroughly. At the moment it is left to the fans to draw attention to the scandal, and they are doing so magnificently.Last Tuesday night Wimbledon attracted an all-time record low First Division crowd of 849 to their home match against Rotherham at Selhurst Park.

Even that figure included season-ticket holders who didn’t turn up. The actual crowd was 493, and that included 227 Rotherham supporters. Wimbledon play Rotherham again on Tuesday and can expect even fewer. The FA must intervene before the situation gets even more bizarre.Meanwhile, we can only hope for another twist in the Crozier saga. I can think of one that is more wishful thinking than serious prediction. The amateurs who comprise the FA Council are likely not to have warmed to Crozier’s slick and impulsive style, but they may be sufficiently alarmed by events to decide to try and rescue the FA’s authority from the very jaws of the clubs by calling an EGM and passing a vote of no confidence in the chairman, electing someone with more fire in his belly and asking Crozier to withdraw his resignation.The battle that would then ensue would be long and bitter, but it would be worth fighting and winning for the sake of the game.Perhaps it was unfair to suggest that the Queen gets involved. The more I think of it, this traitorous behaviour requires the intervention of no less than Queen Elizabeth 1..